Les Invalides is both a monument to French military history and, during The Jackal’s reconnaissance of Paris, a site measured for its potential as a sniper’s position. Its broad view initially makes it look promising, but a careful assessment of distance and obstruction rules it out as a practical place to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.

Setting and Character

The complex dominates the southern side of the Place des Invalides. Its central building houses Napoleon’s tomb and serves as a shrine to the history of the French Ground Army. The square’s scale and ceremonial character make it an obvious place to examine in a city where a public attack on the President is being planned.

The Jackal studies the square from its western side, formed by Rue Fabert. He spends a morning at a café on the corner where Rue Fabert meets the small triangular Place de Santiago du Chili. From there, he considers the buildings, approaches, and sightlines as parts of a possible firing position rather than as monuments to admire.

The Surveyed Firing Position

His attention settles on the upper floors of No. 146 Rue de Grenelle, where Rue de Grenelle meets Rue Fabert at a right angle. From the seventh or eighth floor, a gunman could command the front gardens of Les Invalides, the entrance to its inner courtyard, much of the Place des Invalides, and two or three surrounding streets. The position appears especially useful as a place from which to hold out.

That breadth of view does not make it a sound assassination post. The distance from the upper windows to the gravel path where cars would be brought to the foot of the steps, between two tanks, exceeds two hundred metres. The top branches of dense lime trees in Place de Santiago du Chili further obstruct the downward view. Pigeons perch among the branches, leaving pale droppings on the shoulders of the statue of Vauban below. After weighing these practical limits, The Jackal pays for his Vittel Menthe and leaves.

A Candidate Rejected

The visit shows how The Jackal evaluates a site by its working geometry: range, visibility, access, and the prospect of escape matter more than grandeur. Les Invalides offers several lines of sight across an expansive civic space, but the very features that give the square its monumentality work against a precise shot. It is a good position for a last stand, in his assessment, but not for the attack he intends.

Place in the Wider Threat

The rejected position belongs to a broader search for where and when the attempt might occur. Claude Lebel tells foreign police colleagues that investigators do not yet know the suspected assassin’s name, but believe they may be dealing with a professional political killer. The target, he indicates, can only be Charles de Gaulle. The danger is therefore not confined to a single landmark: the investigation must identify a man whose timetable is known only to himself.

Later, Lebel argues that The Jackal’s week of apparent inactivity after leaving Gap reflects a chosen day for the attack, not abandonment of the plan. That logic gives the reconnaissance of Les Invalides its particular significance. It is one of the places tested and discarded while the assassin preserves his own schedule and the police struggle to discover it.